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The Standard
The chicest ski hotels in Europe — from authentic alpine chalets to a converted hospital
By Rosalyn Wikeley,
3 hours ago
Four Seasons
Alpine grande dames remain bastions of old school glamour, gazing down their long, turreted noses at the frozen lakes, some reluctantly humming a more modern tune, but most dining off stories of winter madcappery and (nearly always) a visit from either Ernest Hemmingway or Sofia Loren, or both. They’re chic, but for the purposes of this article, they’re in their own, rather splendid category. Next up is the reindeer-rugged, Savoyard-style mountain hideaway, where interiors paint an elevated picture of a rustic Alpine lodge with plenty of wood carvings, taxidermy and cowbells.
Then, there’s this chic middleground, which actually, it turns out, is quite hard to define. Perhaps it’s the art, the encased flames dancing against the winterscape, the razor-sharp interiors softened with low-slung sofas or the angular glass structures pulling the snowglobe valleys inside. It’s beautifully designed, but not desperately so. It’s a little aloof, hard-to-get, elusive. Really, it’s the sort of good-looking stay that sends a sparks of excitement up your spine as you first set eyes upon it — an aesthetically on-point hideaway with serious cocktails, menus and spa. Preferably, well placed for whooshing down the slopes and trudging through snowy, biscuit tin Alpine villages.
Since the 1950s, Cortina d’Ampezzo has been synonymous with chic. Dramatically enveloped by the Dolomites , the Alpine town’s leisure pedigree came into its own by the 1950s as a magnet for the European elite and the location for the first Winter Olympics (opened by Sophia Loren, of course). Despite its alluring, and distinctly Italian rituals (aperitif over aprés), Cortina is rather thin on great hotels . Your affluent Milanese family will have a chalet here, or they’ll be pitching up at The Cristallo, as their grandparents did, or since 2022, Hotel de Len.
Deeply rooted in its surroundings, from the timber decking its facade, to the name itself, ‘of wood’, the hotel has seized on an elevated design that keeps it firmly grounded in its location. Except for the glass-fronted spa, which on the hotel’s sixth floor, offers the sensation of being suspended amid all the Dolomite drama — particularly at sunset when the peaks famously move through shades of pink. Expect steam baths, ‘emotional showers’ and an outdoor hot tub that puffs into the cool mountain air.
Locality reaches puritanical levels at the restaurant and bar, where only local ingredients are shimmied into delicious Ladin-inspired small plates and infused into cocktails. Clad in reclaimed fir and Swiss pine, all 22 rooms take sleep seriously, with ‘Sleep Radiance Panels’ at the base of the beds, which allegedly boost the body’s energy flow.
The Parisian Experimental hotel group seem to be on an unstoppable expansion. The boutique chain’s magic is still very much present at their Verbier outpost — a legend of a chalet that has been given the group’s signature haute-and-hip treatment. The spruced, traditional shuttered exterior evokes a retro Alpine postcard and belies the tightly choreographed, modish scene unfolding inside. The design marries mid-century teak with tartan, flames with mirrored walls and velvet, terracotta curtains with funky tasselled armchairs. There’s no ‘lobby’, you enter into a brooding, lacquered-and-mirrored space where knitwear-wearing guests with otter-slick hair, fresh from the shower, lean over louche sharing plates or backgammon boards, their faces animated with the dancing flames.
The skiing here is phenomenal (people actually wake up early to wiggle through the powder fields in Verbier), and the rates feel closer to a hip city hotel than the resort’s famously spicy room rates. Its après scene earned it the monika ‘The Alpine Ibiza’, which has been going strong for decades, mainly in the storied Farm Club directly below the hotel (still dining off the Prince Harry myths, still pumping out bangers into the early hours).
Perched high above the pastel-pretty city of Merano, Miramonti is the gallery seat in the Dolomites jagged-peaked theatre. While seemingly Scandinavian in its clean, architectural style, the hotel’s essence lies in its location, nodding enthusiastically to South Tyrolean traditions through its menus, activities (don’t miss the mountain hikes or snowshoeing) and spa therapies.
The spa is reason alone to wind up the hairpin mountain roads to Miramonti. It’s layered choreography feels more like an auditorium than a wellness centre, with couples absorbing the valley views from Finnish saunas, onsen and, (the money shot), that achingly photogenic pool that tips over the Merano Valley to illustory effect. Naturally, the Panorama restaurant also makes good use of the twinkly Hans Anderson views, with South Tyrol’s Austrian-Italian cultural mosaic deftly represented through unctuous pasta primi and rich, ricotta-filled mains. For a more unbuttoned affair, there’s the fondue and raclette-filled Stube and Nordic-styled Klassik restaurant where foraged mountain berries, jams and bee pollen fuel up skiers for a day on Merano 2000’s intermediate slopes.
If the Bond research team are sniffing out a villain’s lair in Lech, they can follow the blacked out Mercedes winding up Stubenbach (five minutes from Lech’s town centre as villains typically like a little privacy), until it’s engulfed by an unassuming subterranean carpark. Above it lies Severin*s — a modern, upmarket expression of a family’s cosy Alpine chalet, with any decadence visible in the muted fabrics, the crisp-as-meringue bed linen and the private collection of Leichtensteins dotting the walls.
Gentle lighting warms the upcycled timber walls of the vast suites (only seven of them), where glass, grey, Alpine stone and blonde woods do their respective dance. Fresh from the generously wide, snow-sure pistes, skiers can tuck into warm apfelstrudel and Austrian cakes by the traditional tiled stove in the restaurant.
The blanketed peaks, framed by thick cream curtains, move through grey then inky blue shades at supper, when gourmet riffs on Austrian classics appear on tables as they would in a private chalet. But to fully qualify as a villain’s lair, there must be an indoor pool — whose ripples cascade across a mirrored ceiling — and steamy, watery dock to focus the mind and sweat out the sins.
Time hits differently at Forestis, an angular, minimalist marvel woven into the pine forests, high on the south-facing slopes. While the views are the main focus, the location itself is effortlessly shoulder lowering, like a blast of Alpine sunshine or a whiff of pine. This reimagined sanatorium is the flawless work of local architects and makers, enlisted by the couple behind Forestis to draw on the region’s traditions, its textures and materials.
Inside, the design is finely-tuned and simple, recalling Nordic minimalism, which is only dialled up in the modernist towers that sit alongside the storied, revamped building. Their top few floors tip thrillingly over the valley below and constitute the ultimate theatre seats for the rose-tinted Geisler Gruppe sunsets (with local Tyrolean wine).
The Plose chairlift is an easy snow trudge away, shooting skiers up onto a tangle of multi-level pistes, their edges dotted with smoking mountain huts serving bacon dumplings and apfelstrudel . Back at base, any thigh-busting endeavours are duly rewarded with Celtic-influenced treatments and ceremonies in the light-pooled spa, and a crisp glass of South Tyrolean white.
Envisage a menacing, Bond-esque behemoth of a chalet, rising from a snow-blanketed scene, far enough up the mountain to be both vast and invisible. While it’s far more fun to interpret this ‘lurking above town’ location as pompous, if not a little sinister, it is in fact courtesy of the hotel’s ski-in, ski-out ambitions, (when the weather is playing ball), and a bid for better views. This was Six Senses’ first foray into the Alps , shunning the usual suspects for the unpretentious resort of Crans Montana, elevated just above the Crans side.
Inside, any chalet cosiness is achieved through soft, geometric rugs, clever lighting and low slung sofas drowning in cushions. Nature is yanked inside (and given the contemporary treatment) at every corner, from the glass-cased forest floor (open to the elements) that lines the hallway, to the vast balconies with sweeping Rhone Valley views. Rooms and suites are carved from granite, marble and wood with dark gnarled oak and larch cupboards, techy touches and masculine, dimly lit bathrooms. Some even tuck a private sauna into their Eastern-style bathrooms.
Locally-charged menus bridge healthy and hearty, (there’s a fun sushi restaurant that swings into a disco by 11pm) and, true to Six Senses form, the spa is sensational — with a centrepiece glassy pool rippling beneath a MOMA-worthy wooden art installation, a piste-side, outdoor pool above, where films are projected at night, and a biohacking recovery lounge, with all the innovative trimmings.
Lech is Austria’s old money resort, where Diana would bring the Princes to ski and the Dutch Royal family jet to every year for its wide, cruisey slopes and piste-side schnitzel lunches. And Hotel Aurelio sits in plum position, just above it — moments from the action, yet with all the pine-dusted, postcard-pretty views. It’s part of the pepper collection, comprising the main hotel, a chalet connected by a futuristic, arty tunnel and separate privately booked chalets. It’s a little kingdom unto itself and Hotel Aurelio is at the centre of it all, with its ever-roaring fire, relaxed, cake-scattered lounge and phenomenal restaurant where regional treasures are cooked with finesse — expect delicate plates of Zug char with potato mille-feuille. Wiener Schnitzel is doused in lingonberries, and grilled local beef fillet with creamy polenta.
Interiors hop between the traditional and more subtly, sumptuously modern. The restaurant and lounge areas interiors may evince old mountain lairs, with thick, merlot curtains and a profusion of pine, but the freshly-designed rooms feel subtly, and sumptuously, modern. A rustic picture has been elevated with a pared-down palette of pine, chalk and greys, mimicking the pine clad mountains guests can gaze into from their ludicrously comfortable beds or sun-trap balconies. Bath tubs are deep, lighting is low, and all is soft underfoot. Then there’s the spa, a real brutalist treat that slices the natural light and sees to weary ski legs with a steaming, bubbling watery assault course and vast, inviting pool lined with cushioned loungers.
Founded as a ski resort by the Rothschild banking dynasty, Megève has managed to retain its horse-and-sleigh, authentic Alpine spirit. Smart, gated chalets are also two-a-penny with whiffs of old, European money as pungent as the pine-infused air. But a little further up-mountain from the unapologetically classic Mont d’Arbois chalet (part of the invisible Rothschild estate) is Four Seasons Hotel Megève — a much sharper, contemporary proposition.
Furniture and art, plucked from the Rothschild collection, is meticulously placed throughout the lobby and along the refined corridors. In the rooms, bouclé sofas, thick, textured cream curtains and restrained blonde furniture reflects the Narnia-like scenery outside while reading ‘heiress, who once visited Japan.’
In white outs, or when a day on the slopes feels too demanding, the place to be is poolside in the hotel spa. Flanked by Romanesque pillars, deeply cushioned, creamy loungers and, outside, the dusted-pine backdrop, the knockout indoor-outdoor pool is the place to be in white outs, or when one simply doesn’t fancy skiing.
The gourmands are in for a treat, with Anne-Sophie Pic’s alchemic menu in a cosy-contemporary restaurant spilling onto a terrace, and Kaito — Megève’s superior Japanese fusion joint, where the Wagyu beef sliders have been known to elicit gravelly groans of joy, particularly after a few saké cocktails.
This modernist hotel’s setting will imprint itself indelibly in the minds of all guests — perched on the Alpe di Siusi plateau with cinematic views of the Dolomites from its minimalist rooms, restaurants and glass-encased spa. The angular building (and its accompanying, circular health lodge) is green from head to toe, fashioned from sustainable materials and upcycled local timber.
Taken over from the Bernardi family in 2023 by COMO, the hotel is choreographed and configured around a deeply holistic wellness philosophy. Guests slumping into COMO Shambhala for its saunas, steam baths and top-drawer treatments will float back out, collapsing on their absurdly comfortable beds in lethargic rapture. Having wiggled down the surrounding slopes or snowshoed through the forest trails, there’s really nothing like returning to the Alpina’s luxuriously modern embrace, for a glass of Italian red on the suites’ balconies. Then enjoy a Bombardino and biscotti in the lounge, or a deep tissue massage in the spa before turning things around for a locavore supper.
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